I never found Craig a particular good example of drawing any conclusion on. I'm sure I'm missing something here, but I simply can't see many technical sound arguments from him anytime. BTW, I hate to mention this, but just ask your good old friend (I won't mention his name, or I'll get burned again) what he thinks about Craigs technical contribution and esspecially his book.

I know far more about that topic than you realize. The aforementioned 'friend' and I had a heated debate early last year about Craig and Craig's book. I'm quite aware of his opinion on Craig's book, from Message #914374.

I've read Craig's book from beginning to end, and found the phrase "universally panned" to be unfair. (Another forum member, has historically been a supporter of this "friend", also felt the message was not called for). I thought the book was 'ok' and a decent starting point for CR beginners. Not a great book, but an 'ok' book, and certainly not deserving of the message. I think the worst thing that can be said about the book was the general timing of it, with respect to the content and where Crystal was going at the time. Having just finished a Crystal book, I can tell you that it's a rather difficult topic to write a book on.

I don't agree with everything Craig says - but I found his comments on this thread to be dead-on accurate and refreshing.